TOP 5 WEDNESDAY || Bookish Things You’re A Grinch About

Another week, another T5W! This week’s topic revolves around bookish things that I hate (and boy, do I have a lot of them). I think I’m one of THE pettiest people when it comes to books. Also, I like to complain so yay! This should be fun to talk about.

People on the cover

95% of the time, I will not even bother to look at a book if it has a person on the cover. Illustrations of a person are (mostly) fine. It’s the photographs that bug me. They just look… bad. The poses are usually awkward and I feel like they ruin the vibe of the book. If I buy a book with a person on the cover, it’s either because I know that the content is worth having a cover with a person on my shelf or because I want to read to read the book so badly that I would no longer give a shit.

Flashbacks in a story

I hate flashbacks with a passion. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there are more creative ways to show a reader the past other than suddenly time-jumping and submitting us to paragraphs upon paragraphs of italicized text. Argh. If the flashbacks occur at the beginning of the book, such as in a prologue (or even in an epilogue at the end), I wouldn’t mind. If it’s in the middle of the book though, then nope. Nope nope nope. It really ruins the flow of the story for me.

The use of all caps when shouting

This makes me want to tear my hair out. It’s irritating. It’s distracting. It gets on my nerves and I hate it. It’s more of a personal thing, I guess. Reminds me of my fanfic days where basically every other word was in capslock because overreactive shouting was pretty common. So it feels rather unprofessional to me. There ARE some exceptions, but for the most part, if I see a character’s dialogue in all caps, I’m more likely to chuck the book I’m reading out the window.

Stickers on the cover

You know the stickers they like to put on books? The ones that say soon-to-be/now a major motion picture? Can’t stand them. Oh, this book’s gonna be turned into a movie? Yeah, I don’t fucking care. What I do care about is the book looking attractive. I know there’s the whole “don’t judge a book by its cover” saying and whatnot but what’s the first thing that a person sees when looking at the book? The damn cover. At the very least, they could make it look nice. If I wanted to see stickers, I’d stare at my 4th grade Lisa Frank notebook.

Harcover dust jackets

What? Hardcover dust jackets? Yes, I know. ‘Tis strange, this pet peeve of mine. I don’t have a lot of hardcovers to begin with because paperbacks are more comfy to read. Nothing against the hardcovers themselves. They’re gorgeous and pretty damn sturdy, but they can get annoying. I have this fear of accidentally destroying the dust jacket while reading so I always take it off, which is a pain because then I’d have to be extra careful that I wouldn’t destroy the dust jacket while it’s off. It’s an endless cycle of frustration on my part.

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam (Thoughts on Tomes) and created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) on Goodreads. Interested? Join in the fun!

Hey there! I’m Shannel, an introverted bookworm with a thing for Disney and cats. I spent my childhood believing I was a princess, had my dreams crushed when I realized I wasn’t, then turned to reading because anything is possible when you have a book in your hand.

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